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How to remove empty lines in Word?

The document downloaded from the web has too many empty lines (manual line breaks). To save paper and space, we need to remove all empty lines. Is there an easier way to remove all empty lines instead of deleting each one manually? This tutorial will list three available methods for removing all empty lines in the whole or selection of documents:

Remove all empty lines with the Find and Replace option

Remove all empty lines with VBA

Remove all empty lines with Kutools for Word


Remove all empty lines with the Find and Replace option

The Find and Replace function in Word is commonly used to remove all empty lines, but you have to know the empty lines are called Manual Line Breaks in the Find What option.

1. Click Replace on the Home tab. See screenshot:

doc remove empty manual lines 1

2. When the Find and Replace dialog popping up, click More>> button to show more options. And then put the cursor in the Find What field, and select the Manual Line Break from the Special pull-down menu, see screenshot:

doc remove empty manual lines 2

3. There will be a “^l” character in the Find What field, and click Replace All. All manual line breaks have been deleted at once, see screenshot:

doc remove empty manual lines 3


Remove all empty lines with VBA

Alternatively you can use a macro to remove all empty lines if you are good at VBA code, and you may follow the below instructions like this:

1. Press Alt+F11 to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and then copy the below VBA code into the module window.

VBA code: removing all manual line breaks in the document:

Sub Deleemptylines()
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^l"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

3. Then click Run Sub button to run the code, all the manual line breaks will be removed.


Remove all empty lines with kutools for Word

The above methods require a few steps to remove all empty lines, but with Kutools for Word, only one click will help you complete this operation.

Kutools for Word : with more than 100 handy Word add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 60 days. 

1. Please apply this utility by clicking Kutools > Empty Paras > Remove Empty Manual Line Breaks. See screenshot:

2. Then a prompt box will pop out to remind you removing all empty lines, please click Yes button, see screenshot:

doc remove empty manual lines 5

3. After clicking Yes, you can see all the empty lines are removed form the document. See screenshot:

doc remove empty manual lines 3

Note: If you just need to remove the empty lines in a selection, you should select the range before applying this feature.

Click to download Kutools for Word and free trial now!


Demo: Remove all empty lines in Word

Kutools for Word: with more than 100 handy Word add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 60 days. Download and free trial now!



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Comments (9)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Not working !!!!!!!!!!!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The remove empty paragraph marks doesn't work properly.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you, this made an assignment much easier for me!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Does not work. The ^l is ignored.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Works for me. Thank you :)
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
for my doc i needed to use the word replace function find: ^p replace with:^l
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you 'extendoffice' your solution worked for me
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Try finding ^p^p with ^p for paragraphs markers and ^l^l with ^l for line markers.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
^p works if you want to remove blank lines. Just keeping this thread alive as it's still relevant.
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